Reply #154: We did Boy Scouts for over a decade [View All]

[buzzycrumbhunger]

As a family that leans toward what many would consider pagan and very liberal, I found the old farts who wanted to relive their military careers by taking over the older troops like ROTC were more problematic than the religion.

For us, we viewed the "a scout is reverent" to mean toward nature. BSA is geared toward Native American values anyway (or what they think qualifies as such), so ecology and respect for nature is a huge part of the pioneering stuff.

As a 6-year-old, though, your son would simply be a Tiger scout--meaning all his activities are done as a team with a parent. It's actually pretty cool and doesn't involve a lot of time. They typically only have one group meeting a month, and it's often just the general pack meeting. Sometimes, it's just meeting at the bowling alley or a park. One year, the kids got to tour a forest ranger's station and climb the tower. Not a lot of pressure for the little guys, and often it's enough scouting to satisfy them. Many don't stick around to graduate into Cub scouts because they get bored or the parents don't like having to be involved. (It really does help to volunteer to help out, even if it's only to serve refreshments once a year.) If the little kids go camping, it's always a family activity, so you're not just dumping your kid off for free babysitting. I don't recall that they really go beyond the crafts and stuff for the younger kids, so you're not really impacted by the lousy decisions up at the council level.

If you're really bothered by the weirdness of BSA in general, have you considered Spiral Scouts? They do a lot of the same things, but are more oriented toward nature. I think they were started by Wiccans, but everyone is welcome to join. :)